Islamic State claims murder of Muslim preacher in Bangladesh

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for murdering a Muslim preacher in Bangladesh, an online group that monitors extremist activity said on Tuesday (Mar 15), the latest killing declared by the militant group in the South Asian nation.

Violence has surged in recent months in the Muslim-majority country, but the government has rejected Islamic State’s claims, blaming the violence instead on homegrown militant groups.

The US-based SITE Intelligence Group said Islamic State had claimed to have killed the man late on Monday in Jhenaidah, a district about 161 km west of Dhaka, the capital.

“Soldiers of the caliphate in Bangladesh were able to assassinate the polytheist apostate Hafidh Abdul Razzaq, one of the top preachers for the Rafidha religion,” SITE quoted the group as saying.

Although the statement called the victim a member of the Rafidha religion, or the Shi’ite Muslim minority group, police identified the dead man as a homeopathic doctor, Abdul Razzaq, 45, and denied that he was a preacher or a Shi’ite. Read more